View Content #701
| Contentid | 701 |
|---|---|
| Content Type | 1 |
| Title | The Roots of 'Hispanic' |
| Body | From: Nordlund, Carmen washingtonpost.com 1975 Committee of Bureaucrats Produced Designation By Darryl Fears, Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 15, 2003; Page A21 During Hispanic Heritage Month, Grace Flores-Hughes did not dance at any galas, sit on any panels or receive any awards. And when the annual celebration ends today, the 57-year-old Mexican American will look back on another year of being forgotten. Hardly anyone knows that 28 years ago, Flores-Hughes and a handful of other Spanish-speaking federal employees helped make the decision that changed how people with mixed Spanish heritage would be identified in this country. In 1975, when Flores-Hughes was a baby-faced bureaucrat working for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, she sat on the highly contentious Ad Hoc Committee on Racial and Ethnic Definitions. "We chose the word 'Hispanic,' " she said proudly in a recent interview. The choice resounded throughout the federal government, including at the Office of Management and Budget, which placed the word on census forms for the first time in 1980. But the decision touched off a debate in the wider community over whether "Latino" should have been the designated term, and that debate still rages. Flores-Hughes, a federal appointee who lives in Alexandria, does not engage in it. She is more concerned with setting the record straight. "People keep saying that Richard Nixon is the reason why we're called 'Hispanic,' " she said. "And I think, 'Where did they get that from?' " But no one can be blamed for not knowing. Few records survive to document the committee's existence or its work. A search of the federal Education Resources Information Center yielded a single report that includes a list of members and the chairman, Charles Johnson of the Census Bureau. Even former representative Robert Garcia (D-N.Y.), who worked diligently for a "Hispanic" designation in those days, said, "I didn't know the committee existed." The story of how the term came to be embraced by government is more important than ever, Flores-Hughes said, because it is crucial to the debate over whether to identify people as "Hispanic" or "Latino," a debate that vexes the Spanish-speaking and Spanish-surnamed community and non-Hispanic Americans with connections to it. To finish reading the article, go to: washingtonpost.com, Wednesday, October 15, 2003; Page A21 |
| Source | Washington Post |
| Inputdate | 2003-10-17 15:29:00 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2003-10-17 15:29:00 |
| Expdate | Not set |
| Publishdate | Not set |
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| Active | 1 |
| Emailed | 1 |
| Isarchived | 1 |
